Halting and reversing declines of black grouse populations in Britain represents a major conservation challenge. Programmes of dedicated management aiming to benefit black grouse have been introduced on several sites and areas across the species’ British range. These initiatives generally employ various managements, most aimed at improving habitat conditions, but some at reducing direct sources of mortality. Black grouse populations appear to respond to such conservation initiatives, with increases in numbers following the introduction of management in all six cases examined. However, these increases were not always sustained, and the frequent lack of control sites and baseline data means that there is limited ability to assess the full impact of management, and to distinguish management effects from the effects of coincident environmental variation. Similarly, it is difficult to identify the specific managements critical to producing black grouse response. Evidence exists for benefits of reducing large herbivore densities and of reducing generalist predator abundance, although these may be temporary in the case of herbivore reductions. Variation in annual productivity appeared to be a major determinant of population trends at two sites where productivity estimates were available, suggesting that responses to management may often arise via effects on productivity.
There is very little information on the importance of fleshy fruit in the diet of the nestlings and fledglings of partially frugivorous Holarctic passerines. In an area of 0.6 km2 in northwestern Spain, it was verified during 2001–2003 that at least one blackcap Sylvia atricapilla pair and five blackbird Turdus merula pairs fed their offspring on a certain proportion of ivy Hedera helix fruit. Observations made on a blackcap nest in May showed that the parents fed older nestlings on animal prey on 60.7% of occasions and 39.3% on fruit (n = 140 total number of identified feeds). The female fed nestlings on fruit more often than the male. According to observations carried out on five ivy plants in May, blackcaps brought fruit in their bills to feed nestlings or fledglings on 40.3% of 67 feeding visits and blackbirds on at least 22.1% of 86 feeding visits. The blackcaps consistently carried one fruit and the blackbirds between three and five. Both species fed their young on fruit under very different meteorological conditions. Seeds found in the faecal sacs of their nestlings showed high potential germination viability (95.6% undamaged seeds and 4.4% cracked seeds; n = 46 total seeds except for those gnawed by rodents), so the adults probably acted as indirect vectors in dispersing ivy whilst carrying faecal sacs away from the nest.
The corpora cardiaca (CC) of the pneumorid grasshopper species Bullacris discolor contain at least one substance that causes hyperlipaemia in the migratory locust. Isolation of neuropeptides belonging to the adipokinetic hormone (AKH) family was achieved by single-step reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) of CC extracts and monitoring tryptophan fluorescence. The material of the bladder grasshopper showed three distinct fluorescence peaks with adipokinetic activity in the migratory locust. The peptide sequences were identified by Edman degradation after the N-terminal pyroglutamate residue had been cleaved off enzymatically, and the exact peptide masses were determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Moreover, the assigned peptides were synthesised and natural and synthetic peptides were compared in their behaviour in RP-HPLC. B. discolor stores three AKH peptides in its CC: two of those are octapeptides, Schgr-AKH-II (pELNFSTGWamide) and Peram-CAH-II (pELTFTPNWamide), whereas the third peptide is a decapeptide, Phyle-CC (pELTFTPNWGSamide. The concentration of carbohydrates in the haemolymph of B. discolor is about 3 times higher than the lipid concentration. Upon injection with synthetic Schgr-AKH-II no adipokinetic or hypertrehalosaemic effect was measurable. A literature survey appears to indicate that an active role of these AKH peptides in substrate mobilisation is only overtly displayed in those caeliferan species that undertake well-defined flight periods.
Blaena tamasi sp. n., the first species of Cydnidae with staphylinoid modification of wings, is described from Western Australia. The rare cases of wing modifications in Cydnidae and Pentatomoidea are briefly discussed. A key to all known species of the genus Blaena Walker is also provided.